It seems that the broad spirit of collegiality that existed with the minister in reporting on inquiries into undemocratic acts will not be repeated with , who was practically isolated in the session of the (Supreme Federal Court) on Thursday (27).
As he was the rapporteur of two potentially explosive criminal investigations for the Republic — one into the embezzlement of the (National Social Security Institute) and the other into the financial fraud scheme of the —, this was the main political outcome of the trial.
Only the minister adhered to Mendonça’s theory that there was an omission on the part of the president of , (União Brasil-AP), in not reading the request in which the leadership of the joint CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) of the INSS requested the extension of the work.
The other eight magistrates — including his usual trench companion — preached self-restraint that, from Congress’s perspective, they do not always practice. With a Master CPI in sight, a sense of self-protection lay between the lines of the votes. Under Mendonça’s leadership, investigations into the bank advance and could end up reaching the Supreme Court itself.
Whether explicit or not, there were many messages sent throughout the session. To Congress, that abuses will not be tolerated, such as breaches of confidentiality that go beyond the scope of the CPIs and public humiliation of deponents, when cuts to social networks are worth more than uncovering criminal practices, especially in an election year.
To Mendonça, the message was that, by accumulating the rumored cases of the Master and the INSS, the “super-rapporteur” may even have his pen full, but, without having a majority in the court’s plenary, he will need to walk through a thorny ground for his decisions to prevail.
An isolated minister in the STF is left out of internal articulations, loses the chance to negotiate theses behind the scenes, has less prestige among peers and a reduced capacity to build consensus and influence the direction of jurisprudence. In short, he becomes a fragile figure in the court’s gear.
The magistrates made a point of signaling that this would not be the case in Mendonça. Moraes said that his colleague was “necessary” to prevent leaks of confidential CPI materials. thanked him for giving the plenary the “golden opportunity” to debate excesses.
The praise, however, was not able to be transformed into real support for the decision to extend the INSS CPI. With the injunction overturned and without a change from Alcolumbre, the parliamentary committee had no alternative but to end the work definitively.
Mendonça is still betting that he will be able to reverse the isolation scenario in future trials. To do this, it counts on the possibility that the disagreements expressed by Kassio do not mean eternal opposition.
For Fachin and Cármen, their institutional positions also weighed. The fact that he is president of the Supreme Court and she is of the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) discouraged them from picking a fight with the president of Congress, which would certainly happen if Alcolumbre found himself forced to act against his political will.
Mendonça’s victory in the case of the former banker’s arrest can be put into perspective given the fact that the trial took place in the Second Panel, with only 4 of the 10 ministers, and yet under intense criticism from Gilmar, one of the most influential magistrates.
Both in the case of the owner of the Master and in the process regarding the extension of the INSS mixed CPI, Mendonça cited the importance of providing a response to society, an argument that refers to Operation Lava Jato and which is no longer accepted by the majority of the plenary.
The lack of categorical support for Mendonça involves the doubt of how he will react if the Master’s investigations reach Moraes and names located on Vorcaro’s cell phone. The wing opposing the reporting minister is not unaware that he is close to the former president and that the exponential demoralization of the STF serves the family electorally.
The situation requires caution from Mendonça, who will need to balance between not remaining silent (if the investigations demonstrate the real involvement of his colleagues in Vorcaro’s web) and not falling into ego traps (if the mentions of Moraes and Toffoli prove to be inconsistent or irrelevant).
In a lecture at the (Brazilian Bar Association) in Rio de Janeiro on March 20, Mendonça said that “the role of a good judge is not to be a star”, but this is how it is portrayed by Bolsonarism, which already sees in him a magistrate capable of the heroic act of clearing the STF.
At the same time, if the information about colleagues does not point to participation in crimes, overvaluing them could further undermine the population’s trust in the Judiciary, which will inevitably spill over onto Mendonça himself, who in three years’ time will be promoted to vice-president of the court.
